Phantom

Chapter 7

"Who’s Celia?" Bonnie said indignantly, as soon as they’d wiped off the blood. She’d put the rose down careful y in the middle of the front seat, between her and Matt, and they were al very consciously not touching it. Pretty as it was, it looked more sinister than beautiful now, Stefan thought grimly.

"Celia Connor," Meredith said sharply. "Dr. Celia Connor. You saw her in a vision once, Bonnie. The forensic anthropologist."

"The one who’s working with Alaric?" Bonnie said. "But why would her name show up in blood on my arm? In blood."

"That’s what I’d like to know," Meredith said, frowning.

"It could be some kind of warning," Elena proposed. "We don’t know enough yet. We’l go to the station, we’l meet Alaric and Celia, and then…"

"Then?" prompted Meredith, meeting Elena’s cool blue eyes.

"Then we’l do whatever we have to do," Elena said. "As usual."

Bonnie was stil complaining when they got to the train station.

Patience, Stefan reminded himself. Usual y he enjoyed Bonnie’s company, but right now, his body craving the human blood he’d become accustomed to, he felt… off. He rubbed his aching jaw.

"I’d real y hoped we’d get at least a couple days of everything being normal," Bonnie moaned for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"Life’s not fair, Bonnie," Matt said gloomily. Stefan glanced at him in surprise – Matt was usual y the first to leap in and try to cheer up the girls – but the tal blond was leaning against the closed ticket booth, his shoulders drooping, his hands tucked into his pockets. Matt met Stefan’s gaze. "It’s al starting up again, isn’t it?"

Stefan shook his head and glanced around the station. "I don’t know what’s going on," he said. "But we al need to be vigilant until we can figure it out."

"Oh, that’s comforting," Meredith muttered, her gray eyes alertly scanning the platform.

Stefan folded his arms across his chest and shifted closer to Elena and Bonnie. Al his senses, normal and paranormal, were on ful alert. He reached out with his Power, trying to sense any supernatural consciousnesses near them, but felt nothing new or alarming, just the calm background buzz of ordinary humans going about their everyday business.

It was impossible to stop worrying, though. Stefan had seen many things in his five hundred years of existence: vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, angels, witches, al sorts of beings who preyed on or influenced humans in ways most people could never even imagine. And, as a vampire, he knew a lot about blood. More than he had cared to admit.

He’d seen Meredith’s eyes flick toward him with suspicion when Bonnie began to bleed. She was right to be wary of him: How could they trust him when his basic nature was to kil them?

Blood was the essence of life; it was what kept a vampire going centuries after his natural life span should have ended. Blood was the central ingredient in many spel s both benevolent and wicked. Blood had Powers of its own, Powers that were difficult and dangerous to harness. But Stefan had never seen blood behave in the way it had on Bonnie’s arm today.

A thought struck him. "Elena," he said, turning to face her.

"Hmmm?" she answered distractedly, shading her eyes as she peered down the track.

"You said the rose was just lying there waiting for you on the porch when you opened the door this morning?"

Elena brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Actual y, no. Caleb Smal wood found it there and handed it to me when I opened the door to let him in."

"Caleb Smal wood?" Stefan narrowed his eyes. Elena had mentioned earlier that her aunt had hired the Smal wood boy to do some work around the house, but she should have told him of Caleb’s connection to the rose before. "Tyler Smal wood’s cousin? The guy who just showed up out of nowhere to hang around your house? The one who’s probably a werewolf, like the rest of his family?"

"You didn’t meet him. He was perfectly fine. Apparently he’s been around town al summer without anything weird happening. We just don’t remember him." Her tone was breezy, but her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. Stefan reached out automatical y to speak to her with his mind, to have a private conversation about what she was real y feeling. But he couldn’t. He was so used to depending on the connection between them that he kept forgetting it was gone now; he could sense Elena’s emotions, could feel her aura, but they could no longer communicate telepathical y. He and Elena were separate again. Stefan hunched his shoulders miserably against the breeze.

Bonnie frowned, the summer wind whipping her strawberry ringlets around her face. "Is Tyler even a werewolf now? Because if Sue’s alive, he didn’t kil her to become a werewolf, right?"

Elena held her palms to the sky. "I don’t know. He’s gone, anyway, and I’m not sorry. Even before he was a werewolf, he was a real jerk. Remember what a bul y he was at school? And how he was always drinking out of that hip flask and hitting on us? But I’m pretty sure Caleb’s just a regular guy. I’d have known if there was something wrong with him."

Stefan looked at her. "You’ve got wonderful instincts about people," he said careful y. "But are you sure you’re not relying on senses you don’t have anymore to tel you what Caleb is?" He thought of how the Guardians had painful y clipped Elena’s Wings and destroyed her Powers, the Powers she and her friends only half-understood. Elena looked taken aback and was opening her mouth to reply when the train chugged into the station, preventing further discussion.

Only a few people were disembarking at the Fel ‘s Church station, and Stefan soon spotted Alaric’s familiar form. After stepping down to the platform, Alaric reached back to steady a slender African-American woman as she exited behind him.